Saturday, September 13, 2008

NEW WORLD RECORD FOR SMYTH

Jason Smyth ran a new Paralympic world record time of 10.81 to in the hearts of the T13 100m, qualifying easily for tonight's final in the Bird's Nest Stadium.The 20 year old from Derry shaved four hundredths of a second off his own world record of 10.85, set last May at the Paralympic World Cup in Manchester.Running in the second heat, Smyth got off to an explosive start and beat Zlatanov of Bulgaria by half a second. Alexey Labzin of Russia had won the first heat in 10.98 and is the only other athlete to have run under 11 seconds in qualifiying.Today's final takes place at 5.45pm local time (10.45am Irish time). Smyth will race in lane four with Labzin in five.